ICREA Research Professor and head of Nanobioelectronics & Biosensors Group at ICN2 (Institut Català de Nanociència i Nanotecnologia). He obtained his PhD at University of Tirana working on ion selective electrodes. Since 1992 he has been doing research as postdoctoral fellow and research professor at Polytechnic Univ. of Budapest, Univ. of Ioanina, Univ. degli Studi di Padua, Univ. Politècnica de Catalunya, Univ. Autònoma de Barcelona and New Mexico State Univ. His research is focused on the integration of biological molecules and other species with micro- and nanostructures with interest for the design of novel (bio)sensors. He has published more than 340 articles and supervised 45 PhD thesis. He is co-founder of two spin-off companies, PaperDrop dedicated to nanodiagnostics and GraphenicaLab to electronic printing.
Research interests
- Development of Innovative nanocomposites with improved electronic/catalytic properties, spatially-oriented anchoring substrates and highly sensitive electro/colorimetric readouts are being developed for sensing applications.
- Paper-based biosensors modified with laser patterned rGO to enable electrochemical sensing on paper substrates without altering the paper microfluidic properties, thanks to the stamping method.
- Plug & play printing platforms for the ubiquitous fabrication of low-cost and environmental friendly nanomaterial biosensors with nanofunctional inks, using commercially available office printers.
- Multilayered graphene and metal nanoparticle sensors printed on flexible polymers for the development of sensitive biosensors with impedimetric readout.
- Disposable, wireless, low-cost electrochemical readout systems interfaced with smartphones for connecting to the IoT and an AI approach to the data analysis for environmental and healthcare applications.
Selected publications
- Maroli G, Abarintos V, Piper A & Merkoçi A 2023, 'The Cleanroom-Free, Cheap, and Rapid Fabrication of
Nanoelectrodes with Low zM Limits of Detection', Small, 19, 2302136.
- Della Pelle F, Bukhari QUA, Diduk R, et al. 2023, 'Freestanding laser-induced two dimensional heterostructures for self-contained paper-based sensors', Nanoscale, 15, 7164-7175.
- Scroccarello A, Álvarez-Diduk R, Della Pelle F, et al. 2023, 'One-Step Laser Nanostructuration of Reduced Graphene Oxide Films Embedding Metal Nanoparticles for Sensing Applications', Acs Sensors, 8, 2, 598 - 609.
- Zhao L, Rosati G, Piper A, et al. 2023, 'Laser Reduced Graphene Oxide Electrode for Pathogenic Escherichia coli Detection', Acs Applied Materials & Interfaces, 15(7):9024-9033.
- Rivas L, Hu L, Parolo C, Idili A & Merkoçi A 2023, 'Rational Approach to Tailor Au-IrO2 Nanoflowers as Colorimetric Labels for Lateral Flow Assays', ACS Applied Nano Materials, 6, 6, 4151-4161.
- Yang Q, Nguyen EP, Panáček D, Šedajová V, Hrubý V, Rosati G, Silva CCC, Bakandritsos A, Otyepka M & Merkoçi A 2023, 'Metal-free cysteamine-functionalized graphene alleviates mutual interferences in heavy metal electrochemical detection', Green Chemistry, 25(4):1647-1657.
- Renzi E, Piper A, Nastri F, Merkoçi A & Lombardi A 2023, 'An Artificial Miniaturized Peroxidase for Signal Amplification in Lateral Flow Immunoassays', Small, 19, 2207949.